February
2015
City of Prairie Grove Arkansas
FYI
Legislature in Session
The 90th General Assembly of the
Arkansas State Legislature convened on Monday January 12th.
Already a number of bills have
been introduced which could have
an affect on Cities.
 HB 1003 ; Changes requirements on outdoor lighting and
light pollution.
 HB1024 ; Requires all government bodies to record and
retain those recordings of executive sessions.
 HB1067 ; Allows ADEQ to
establish a procedure and system which will involve credits,
offsets, exchanges, and trades in
regards to water nutrient pollutions.
 HB 1079 ; would make it illegal
to use any unmanned vehicle or
aircraft to take a picture of any
private property without owners consent.
 HB1087 ; would prohibit any
employer form making mandatory requirements to change
privacy settings, or “add” the
employer in order to allow the
employer to see content on the
employee’s social media pages.
 HB1089 ; Would appropriate
tax dollars to assist county and
municipal animal shelters
 HB1097 ; State Turnback appropriation
Cont’d next page
Former Public Works Supervisor Passes Away –Al Bessinger
Al Bessinger was hired
by the City in 1995 to
oversee the day to day
work in the Public Works
Departments. He had
previously been a maintenance supervisor at
Washington Regional Medical Center
and Prairie Grove Schools as well as
working at Florida Power and Light.
the accident. He continued to work for the
City following recovery, but was limited by
seizures that were a result of the injury. He
took early retirement in 2004.
Bessinger was the first to hold the
Bessinger passed away on January 27th at
Operations supervisor position. In
the
age of 67.
addition, he was certified to do
plumbing and HVAC inspections, and
was licensed in wastewater treatment
as well as water treatment. Bessinger
was in a serious truck accident in July
of 2003, when a woman crossed the
center line and hit the City Truck he
was driving. Bessinger was one of two
passengers. The impact drove the rear
axle out from under the truck and
caused it to do a complete circle before rolling in the ditch. Bessinger
suffered a permanent brain injury in
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Continued from previous page
 SB77 ; Raises the requirement for a
 HB1106 ; would allow residents
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outside a city limits to sit on a
Park and Recreation Commission.
HB1193 ; would require revenue
from District Courts to be deposited in the General Fund of
each political subdivision if the
General Fund contributed to the
expenses of the court.
HJR ; would eliminate the even
year fiscal session of the General
Assembly.
SB 37 ; Would require Cities
that engage in non-consent towing to create by ordinance a procedure to hear and investigate
complaints.
SB56 ; Would require sex offenders to report directly to local
law enforcement instead of the
ACI and would require they
report any volunteer work they
might be involved with.
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licensed architect from $100,000 to
$125,000 on fair market value of
commercial buildings.
SB83 ; Removes the exception which
allows level 3 or 4 sex offenders to
attend events on school campuses for
which admission is charged or tickets
are distributed.
SB95 ; Would create a sales tax exemption for service organizations
such as Lion’s Club, masonic Lodge,
etc.
SB149 ; Would direct the AR Fire
Protection Services Board to adopt
physical fitness test for preemployment of fire fighters. HB1210 would allow cities to contract with neighboring cities for fire
service
HB1163 ; Would prohibit cities from
disciplining employees for exercising
their rights under FOIA by contacting
elected officials.
NEW
BANNERS
Thanks to the Prairie
Grove Telephone Company, downtown Prairie
Grove is a little more
dressed up. Banners to be
 HB1203 ; Would change the
requirements to the use of
deadly force. The bill removes
the reference to a person’s
dwelling and replaces it with
“premises in which a person
has a property interest”.
 HB1240 ; Another deadly
force law, would eliminate the
duty to retreat when it comes
to the use of deadly force. The
“stand your ground” law
would allow anyone who feels
threatened of a violent act to
protect themselves using the
use of deadly force.
 SB202 ; would prevent any
city or county from passing a
antidiscrimination law that
contains provisions not covered in state law. This law is
targeted at Fayetteville’s recent ordinance that was overturned by voters.
displayed on the street lights advertise historic downtown Prairie Grove. Two different banner styles are alternated down
the street and replace the Holiday Season
banners that are placed before Thanksgiving and left up until after New Years.
DAM CLEARED BY CITY
WORKERS
City crews wrapped up a project of clearing brush and trees off the Prairie Grove Lake Dam. Crews used ropes to tie on to the trees and pulled
them to a location where they could be burned using backhoes. The project took approximately two weeks to finish.
A commercial spay applicator sprays most of the backside of the dam as
well as part of the front side of the dam, but must keep the spray back a
minimum of 50’ from the water edge. This allows trees and shrubs to
grow along the water edge where they must be manually removed periodically. Hundreds of trees, some as big as 6” in diameter, were removed.
2015
Page 3
C AT H O U S E
C O N S T RU C T E D
P OUND
AT
House in its place. The new house will have climbing shelves and other structures as well as an attached solarium, where on nice days the
cats can go outside and enjoy the sun and weather. The room itself is
full of windows and is attached to the existing pound, cat cage area.
The Stray Cats of the world got a new
playhouse recently. City Staff tore down
what was an eyesore and dilapidated storage room at the pound and built a new Cat
C I T Y S TAF F
WOR K O N
Last year the City bought
an additional strip of land
on the east side of Stills
Road from the highway
department. It joined an
existing small piece that
the city already owned.
City staff recently started
stripping top soil, and
hauling in fill material to
build up a base for the future parking lot that will be
City staff built the new room on an existing concrete slab and Friends
of the pound will complete the interior space.
P A R KI N G L O T P RE P
built on the site. The Sugar Maples on the lot are
being preserved. The lot
will serve as an overflow
for busy days, such as
when court is in session,
and will also provide direct
access to highway 62 allowing it to be used as park
and ride, and car pool lot.
Ozark Regional Transit,
already picks up riders just
T R AI L E R R E P U RP O SE D
When the City built the new
drainage ditch to Viney Grove
Road a couple years ago, it cut
off the back of the sewer plant
property making it nearly impossible to reach. A 54’ used semitrailer has been purchased for
scrap price and will be repurposed as a bridge across the
AS
across the street from the proposed lots.
N E W B RI D GE
ditch. Once all the sides and
top have been removed, the
trailer will be put into place,
then the axles removed and
the new bridge will be used
to get tractors and mowers
across the ditch so they can
maintain the north side of the
property.
Page 4
FYI
City of Prairie Grove staff news
City of Prairie Grove
PO Box 944
www.prairiegrovearkansas.org
 Larry Oelrich was appointed to the Arkansas Water Environment, first
ever Certification Program Committee. The committee was established
this year to oversee certification programs being initiated by the State
Environmental Association. A wastewater collection certification program has been implemented and the board has submitted its application
to be approved by the national ABC testing board. In addition to the
collection system certification AWEA has plans to implement a lab tech
certification and a pretreatment certification program in the future. The
first meeting will be on February 12th in Russellville.
 Oelrich will attend a board meeting of the Arkansas Water Works and
Water Environment Association on February 10th in Little Rock
 Oelrich will attend a board meeting of the Arkansas Water Environment
Association on February 19th in Little Rock.
 Larry Oelrich was appointed to the AWEA awards committee recently.
 Granville Pankey, Ron Corey, and Justin Flumm will all attend the NW
District AWWWEA meeting in Rogers on February 11th.
 Justin Flumm will attend a basic water treatment class in Lonoke on
February 24th through 26th.
 David Faulk and Bo Mitchell are both attending the Arkansas Police
Academy beginning this month.
W AYF I N DE R S I G N S H E L P C I T I E S
G E T N OT I CE D
The Northwest Arkansas
Council started the Wayfinder Sign Program two
years ago to give NW Arkansas cities a uniform look
in regards to tourism.
The signs were designed
and specifications developed, that although not all
identical, have similar features and themes. Color
differences are allowed, but
only within a range of color
combinations provided by
the wayfinder committee.
The signs have been ap-
proved for use by the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Dept. along Highway
right of ways.
Initially the City was told
the cost would be around
$6000 per sign, but recently
it was learned that the city
may contract out with local
sign companies to create and
install the signs as long as
they meet the program specifications. One sign company has given and estimate
that they can do them for
$3000—$3500 per sign installed.